Kiskiack (or Chisiack or Chiskiack) was a
Native American tribal group of the
Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
in what is present-day
York County, Virginia
York County (formerly Charles River County) is a county in the eastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in the Tidewater. As of the 2020 census, the population was 70,045. The county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown.
...
. The name means "Wide Land" or "Bread Place" in the native language, one of the Virginia
Algonquian languages. It was also the name of their village on the
Virginia Peninsula
The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the ...
.
Later English colonists adopted the name for their own village in that area. The site was later developed for the US
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It provided a weapons and ammunition storage and loading facility for ships of the United S ...
in York County. The settlement was from ''
Werowocomoco
Werowocomoco was a village that served as the headquarters of Chief Powhatan, a Virginia Algonquian political and spiritual leader when the English founded Jamestown in 1607. The name ''Werowocomoco'' comes from the Powhatan ''werowans'' (''wer ...
'', capital of the Powhatan Confederacy.
History
In the mid-16th and early 17th century, the Algonquian-speaking Kiskiack tribe, part of the large
Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
, was located near the south bank of the
York River on the
Virginia Peninsula
The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the ...
, which extended into the Chesapeake Bay. The present-day city of
Yorktown developed a few miles east of here. The Kiskiack had built permanent villages, made up of numerous long-houses or ''
yihakans'', in which related families would live. The longhouses had both private and communal space.
The Kiskiack were one of the original six tribes of the
Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
, which by the early 17th century included 30 tributary tribes. Beginning with the arrival of the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
colonists
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area.
A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer.
Settle ...
at
Jamestown in 1607, the Kiskiack were generally one of the most hostile toward the English encroachments. They were reluctant to give away their goods to English parties from Jamestown who sought corn and other foodstuffs in order to survive during their first difficult years. But, the Kiskiack were one of the few tribes to be relatively friendly to the English in the First
Anglo-Powhatan War
The AngloPowhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The ...
.
Kiskiack was about from Jamestown, to the north across the Peninsula and located along the York River. This area did not receive as many English colonists as did the waterfront along the
James River
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
. In 1612,
John Smith estimated the Kiskiack population included about 40–50 warriors.
William Strachey
William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 21 June 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter of ...
recorded the name of their ''
weroance
Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. The Powhatan Confederacy, encountered by the coloni ...
'' as ''Ottahotin''.
The Kiskiack took part in the
Indian Massacre of 1622
The Indian massacre of 1622, popularly known as the Jamestown massacre, took place in the English Colony of Virginia, in what is now the United States, on 22 March 1622. John Smith, though he had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was not an ey ...
and helped kill colonists, hoping to drive away the survivors. The next year the colonists retaliated against them and other nearby tribes, killing about 200 men by giving them poison at a supposed friendly meeting. Some time before 1627, the Kiskiack left their village to migrate west; the English colonists occupied the site in 1629 and retained the name for some time.
By 1649 the Kiskiack had settled along the
Piankatank River
The Piankatank River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Virginia. Located on the Middle Peninsula, between the Rappahannock and ...
, where the English granted their ''weroance'' ''Ossakican'' (or Wassatickon) a reservation of . In 1651, the Kiskiack exchanged this land for another tract farther upriver. Soon the English began to encroach on that reservation in
Gloucester County as well. In 1669 the Kiskiack were recorded as having only 15 bowmen. They last appeared in historical records as participants in the 1676
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Colony of Virginia, Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon (Virginia colonist), Nathaniel Bacon against List of colonial governors of Virginia, Colon ...
. The remaining Kiskiack appear to have merged and intermarried with other groups, probably the
Pamunkey
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribal governments recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribal governments, t ...
,
Chickahominy, or
Rappahannock.
English settlement and the palisade
At a meeting held at Jamestown on October 8, 1630, Sir
John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
, the Governor, and his Council ordered the granting of lands in this area, noting:
"for the securing and taking in a tract of land called the forest, bordering upon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey
The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribal governments recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. Six other Virginia tribal governments, t ...
King, the most dangerous head of ye Indyan enemy," did "after much consultation thereof had, decree and sett down several proportions of land for such commanders, and per poll for all other persons who ye first yeare and five and who the second yeare, should adventure or be adventured to seate and inhabit on the southern side of Pamunkey River, now called York, and formerly known by the Indyan name of Chiskiack, as a reward and encouragement for their undertaking.""Old Capital"
James City, VA History, Rootsweb, US GenWeb
Under this order, colonists built houses on both sides of King's Creek. New ones were added along the south side of York River. The colony decided to fortify the area. In 1634, they erected a
palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade.
Etymology
''Palisade' ...
across the Peninsula from
Martin's Hundred
Martin's Hundred was an early 17th-century plantation located along about ten miles (16 km) of the north shore of the James River in the Virginia Colony east of Jamestown in the southeastern portion of present-day James City County, Virginia. ...
to Kiskiack to protect the lower (eastern) area from Indian attacks.
Middle Plantation, near the center of the palisade, was the first inland settlement. It was established by an Act of Assembly of the
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...
in 1632. In 1699 Middle Plantation was renamed
Williamsburg after being designated the capital of the Colony.
Current uses
The former site of Kiskiack was developed and occupied by the U.S.
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It provided a weapons and ammunition storage and loading facility for ships of the United S ...
. The original Algonquian name, often mispronounced by Americans, was the origin of the names of "Cheesecake Road" and "Cheesecake Cemetery", now part of Navy lands in this same area.
The southern end of Cheesecake Road left the federal property and crossed
State Route 143 (Merrimack Trail), and the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...
, connecting with
U.S. Route 60 (Pocahontas Trail) near the western edge of
Grove and the James City County-York County border. It was split by the construction of
Interstate 64
Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...
in the late 1960s.
See also
*
Don Luis
Don Luís de Velasco, also known as Paquiquino, was a Native American, possibly of the Kiskiack or Paspahegh tribe, from the area of what is now Tidewater, Virginia. In 1561 he was taken by a Spanish expedition. He traveled with them ultimately ...
*
Ajacán Mission
The Ajacán Mission () (also Axaca, Axacam, Iacan, Jacán, Xacan) was a Spanish attempt in 1570 to establish a Jesuit mission in the vicinity of the Virginia Peninsula to bring Christianity to the Virginia Indians. The effort to found St. Mar ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Kiskiack, Naval Mine Depot, State Route 238 vicinity, Yorktown, York County, VA 52 photos, 2 color transparencies, 8 measured drawings, 153 data pages, and 6 photo caption pages at
Historic American Buildings Survey
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
Powhatan Confederacy